I am soooo excited for five o'clock tonight!!

Kent has his last test today from 3-5! He just finished one and now is putting in a little extra study for the anatomy practical. And then...he is MINE! It's been a very long week for the two of us and I am so ready to have a few days of relaxation (kind of!). I knew he was a little stressed when I woke up to find this sight, along with a clean kitchen (he even washed all of my pots and pans from making food for the relief society activity).

He must have done it while I was on the computer last night or something! I'll be honest, I am very happy to have a husband who deep cleans when he gets stressed! I'm the one that has been grumpy this week with him being gone until 9 or ten. he just cleans. He cleans pretty well too :)

He has been working his tail off this week and for that I am insanely grateful. I have the best husband in the world. I can't wait to spend the next three weeks just having fun with him! I am so excited to be headed home but I wouldn't be too disappointed if we stayed here and had our own little Christmas, just the two of us (well, we would probably let little zeb participate too!).

here it is

Here is a video of Mitt Romney's "religious speech" for those of you who haven't seen it. It's about 20 minutes and, in my opinion, it's fabulous. Listen to it while you're cleaning or doing something around the house.

click here

keep it going afterwards to hear more of Mitt's positions.

This is in no way my official endorsement of Romney. I'm still researching. I do however like a lot of what Mitt does/says.

less than a week and you'll see the cutest baby EVER!

I just thought I'd post some pictures to get you all excited for us coming on TUESDAY(although really it will probably be Wednesday if our flight is delayed even a little)!!!! and since I know you are all really just excited to see the rugrat, they are all of him.

Don't lie, we know you are mostly anticipating the arrival of Z! Kent and I have decided that this is going to be to our benefit. We can just leave him with all of you and finally have some time to ourselves! we have quite the list of "things to do in Utah" for when we come home :)

really, this little Zeb is irresistible.

ahhhhhhh. for so many reasons.

I have such Christmas anxiety. I have so much to do it's ridiculous! and here I am sitting at the computer. I am so anxious about getting everything accomplished before we leave. The house needs to be deep cleaned, I haven't gone running once this week, I have two holiday parties this week still (I need to make food for both), I need to make my pixie pal gift in the next five days because the part I ordered online just showed up today, I need to finish Kent's present, we have a 6 month check-up for Z, and to top it all off I just found out that the season finale of "The Biggest Loser" is on Tuesday while we are in the air en route to Utah! I am so mad. Why couldn't I have planned ahead? Plus, Kent has the tests of death on Friday so he isn't any help with any of these things!!!! oh, and Zeb. This baby sure requires a lot of constant attention. It's much harder than having a rabbit or something.

Really, I thrive on this sort of thing though. I make things this crazy too. I still go to playgroups, walking groups, and cooking groups and out with the missionaries. I think that one of my favorite things about Christmas is, in fact, the busyness of it all. I love being out in the stores with all of the frantic people and loud Christmas music. I love talking to the people in line next to me and finding out about their Christmas shopping. It just makes me feel like Christmas is really here!

and speaking of ahhhhhhhhhh. read this!!! my sister called and told me about it this morning. It's outrageous. It's times like this that I sure wish I was still teaching Biology! It is so amazing. My students would eat it up.

"A 1-year-old girl's deceased siblings were removed from her abdomen by Indonesian doctors at Sumatra island hospital, according to a report from French news agency AFP.
The two bodies, believed to be triplets that did not fully develop, were successfully removed from the girl Tuesday during a five-hour surgery, the head of medical services at the main state hospital in the West Sumatra city of Padang told AFP.

The girl had initially been diagnosed with stomach tumors, however doctors later discovered her abdominal discomfort was the result of two deceased siblings connected to her digestive tract.
One of the bodies was complete except for limbs. The second had only a head with hairs and part of its digestive system". foxnews.com

Isn't that CRAZY?!?!

and here is how Z deals with all of the christmas frenzy! I sure wish that I liked to nap. Oh, and good thing he doesn't have any extra siblings hidden somewhere.

southwyck mall

This is the scary mall where we do walking group. There are only 11 stores open. There is also a scary carousel that still runs. I cannot figure out how any of the places have enough business to actually stay open. One great benefit of the mall is that they open it for walking every morning. It makes it quite nice during the winter months here in Toledo.

They have put up lots of fun decoration for the holidays to try and lure people in I suppose. This morning at walking group I stuck Zeb in some of the fake snow to take pictures! He tried to eat it. He also had a lot of fun playing with Cohen. He loves other little kids so much. I really think he's going to just love all of the attention he'll get with all of you in Utah. I am, however, very nervous about his sleeping habits when we come home! He gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 here, which isn't too bad, but I am terrified that it will equate to 4:30 or 5:30 in Utah! He will definitely have to go walking with mom in the mornings. Ahhhh!!!

one of the things that makes me happy!

Yet one more reason I love living in Toledo...

For some reason we get BRAVO on our TV. We have the basic channels and BRAVO. It's a little bit fuzzy, but definitely still viewable. I love it and I'm obsessed. I cannot tell you how much I look forward each week to the new episodes of Project Runway. Tim Gunn makes me laugh so hard and who doesn't love Heidi Klum? The contestants are some of the craziest people alive. The show is so addicting.

Bravo also shows "Top Chef". I have such a weakness for these ridiculous reality contest shows that have these crazy challenges each week. I love watching to see what the designers end up making or what the chefs end up creating. Plus, they rerun all of the episodes and old seasons of the shows regularly (which means I won't miss anything while we are in Utah for Christmas!!) and they have Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathons. Thank heavens we don't have cable. This channel is enough of a temptation for me! and how could I forget? the show that makes me the craziest... Real Housewives of Orange County. I cannot even begin to explain the insanity of this show.

BRAVO is my guilty pleasure. I get so excited to curl up in a blanket and make Kent watch the new episodes with me! I love BRAVO.

yet ANOTHER reason to love this place!

Check out the amazingly beautiful ice storm we had today! these pictures are from our front yard this afternoon. The roads are disastrous and the news is already announcing school closures and delays for tomorrow. There were actually a few catastrophes in the church parking lot today as well!! Just a few cars sliding into to other cars is all. When we emerged from church it appeared as though all of the cars were covered with big pods of ice. We had to chip ice away to get to the key hole and even more when we tried to open our doors! I really love the way the grass blades snap in half when you slide across the lawn in this weather.

my 2nd favorite Zeb

I know that I said my favorite Zeb is laughing Zeb, but my second favorite is "after nap" Zeb. He is always so ridiculously smiley and happy. He is nothing like me right after I wake up. Once again he takes after his dad. Maybe he isn't my baby.

today's hidden tree

Hip hip hooray! It now really feels like Christmas! We just got back from The Nutcracker performed by the Toledo Ballet. It was absolutely wonderful (although it did make me homesick for Metta! good thing we are coming home in a week). I got tickets a few weeks back and I thought Kent knew for sure. He claims that it was a surprise to him but I still have my doubts.

One of the best parts of the evening was that it was at the Stranahan Theater, no more than a quarter mile from our apartment. We walked and probably made better time than if we had driven. Walking home in the freezing cold through the snow made a fabulous end to the evening! Zeb hung out with Sam while we were gone and did quite well. I think that he will do just fine with all of you relatives that are new to him. He really isn't afraid of people too much.

We tried to get the background in this picture. If you look closely enough you can see the wall. Yep, we sat in the last row of the theater. The very-very top row of the balcony. The tickets were really cheap and having terrible seats has become somewhat of a tradition for us whenever we go to any cultural event. There was a huge section of empty seats in the price category ahead of us though and at intermission we got all of the people around us to move up with us. We figured they couldn't send us all back to our seats. For the second half of the show we had much better seats.

hidden tree

Yesterday's tree was possibly my favorite thus far. Christmas Crunch and Mickey's Christmas Carol! Zeb also enjoyed them. Nothing better than Christmas Crunch to remind you of the holidays. Plus I love "the Christmas Carol" with Scrooge McDuck as Ebeneezer and Mickey as Bob Crachett. I do think tonight's hidden tree will be the very best of all! it's a great big secret so I can't post about it yet! I think that Kent already has it all figured out though.

drink drink drink

I guess it's pretty normal. I asked the neighbors if their rugrat drinks bath water and they said yes. Zeb LOVES warm sudsy water. weirdo. He is obsessed with sucking all of the water out of his little bear bath sponge. He will only sit up in the tub now so he leans completely forward and sucks all of the water out of his sponge! The best is when he topples forward and goes face first into the water and comes up sputtering and splashing and gasping for air! he does it to himself yet he looks at us with this look of bewilderment, wondering "how could you have done this to me?" it's adorable. When he's in the tub it makes me realize how much he's grown (and how much cuter he is!). Check out his baby picture! he was one ratty looking rugrat. And he fits on the little bear perfectly! Now he can barely sit on it. He kinda looks like ET. Okay, a lot he looks like ET. Good thing they get cuter.

laughing fits

Zeb has been having quite a few little laughing fits lately. He had one over at the neighbor's house while watching Sam and Jack throw a basketball around. He laughed so hard that he fell over. This video was yesterday. I made a funny noise at him and he just started giggling! I love when he does it. Laughing zeb is my favorite zeb.